Council Members, Hispanic Activists and Leaders Recognize Bishop David O’Connell’s Leadership

The Los Angeles Council adjourned Tuesday in honor of Bishop David O’Connell, who was assassinated Saturday at his home in Hacienda Heights.

Carlos Medina, 61, the husband of a priest’s housekeeper, is a suspect arrested for a crime allegedly due to financial debt.

Medina was taken into custody at a house in the city of Torrance on Monday. He is behind bars on $2 million bail.

There are no specific charges against Medina in the prison records. It is only mentioned that he is in custody for a criminal offense. He was arrested Monday morning by officers from the Los Angeles South Precinct in the Lennox County Sheriff’s Department.

Bishop O’Connell’s work with the South Central Organizing Committee contributed to gang intervention and the closure of liquor stores in an area populated mostly by low-income and marginalized families of color.

This task has been championed by groups such as the Community Coalition, led by current Councilor Marquis Harris-Dawson.

“We have lost one of our brightest and most loving angels we have ever had,” Council member Harris Dawson said.

Working with and for the poor
Born in County Cork, Ireland, in 1953, O’Connell studied for the priesthood at All Saints College Dublin and was ordained to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 1979.
Since his ordination, he has served as an Associate Pastor in various churches in South Central Los Angeles, and in 2015 was appointed Associate Bishop of the Archbishop of Los Angeles by Pope Francis.

In south-central Los Angeles parishes, O’Connell ministered to a community ravaged by gang violence, poverty, broken families, and tensions between police and residents that erupted in 1992 when an African American, Rodney King, was brutally beaten by four. LAPD officers who ended up burning down Los Angeles when a jury verdict acquitted the cops.

“He will always be remembered for fighting for change in the communities most affected by violence,” said council member Monica Rodriguez. “He led with empathy and understanding, as a tireless advocate for communities that are so often left behind, especially illegal and immigrant communities. “.

Salvador Sanabria, a social activist and executive director of El Rescate, a non-profit immigrant advocacy organization, admitted that the Gang Reduction and Youth Growth Program, or GRYD, established in 2007 by former mayor Eric Garcetti, emerged as a way to somehow pacify ” fratricidal population. war” between the African American, Hispanic and Asian communities.

“And the role of the Catholic Church was key, and I think that its role [Dave O’Connell] was to first assess the role of gangs as a result of the exclusion of poor, segmented families, lack of access to education, resources and marginalization, which were factors in which these groups subsequently became transnational entities, such as these gangs in Mexico, Guatemala. , El Salvador, Honduras and even in Spain,” he added. “Afterwards, as a man of peace, he was able to promote peace in our communities.”

The pain of discrimination
Richard Zaldivar, executive director of The Wall Las Memorias, a nonprofit dedicated to the health and wellness of the Hispanic community, believes that Los Angeles and the country “need more bishops like him, with intelligence and purpose.” open heart to working with marginalized communities.”

“As a Catholic, I can say that we don’t have many priests like him when it comes to speaking out against discrimination and intolerance,” he added. “His work for the immigrants was very valuable because, as an Irishman, Bishop O’Connell understood the pain and discrimination they too suffered”, mostly from 1845 to 1880, featuring a “wild beast”, as part of an anti- Irish discourse in the USA.

As active leader of the South Central Los Angeles Organizing Committee in the 1980s and 1990s, Bishop O’Connell and a task force led to California’s assault weapons ban in 1989, helped thousands of immigrants become citizens after the 1986 immigration reform of the year. legislation passed under the Reagan administration and worked to close liquor stores after the riots that followed the beating of Rodney King.

Other government officials such as Supervisor Janice Khan demanded that all county flags be flown at half mast.

“Bishop O’Connell has been a friend of mine for many years. I first met him when I was on the Los Angeles City Council representing Watts, and he was a minister at the Ascension Catholic Church in South Los Angeles,” Khan said. “He and I work with gang members and community members. He reached out to the homeless, he reached out to the homeless. It was a shelter for the helpless and a hope for those who did not have it; he knew that serving God is serving our neighbor – and above all the most vulnerable in our society.”

For her part, supervisor Hilda Solis said: “My heart broke when I heard the news that my friend’s life had been taken in this way. I have known Bishop O’Connell since he served in Congress. In fact, it was he who led the mass to bless me for the appointment of the Minister of Labor.

“I have many memories of how we fought for immigration reform. He was a great man and I witnessed his sincere and sincere love for people,” she added. “The death of Bishop O’Connell will not be in vain. We will do what he taught us: love, fight and care for the most vulnerable people. I will miss him terribly.”